Tom Cruise is so dedicated to his craft that he rarely surprises me anymore, and I mean that entirely as a compliment. Heck, he learned to pilot a helicopter in his mid-50s for a single stunt in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. He famously broke his ankle in another stunt for the same film and still managed to limp off-screen and nail the take. And the less said about that knife stunt in Mission: Impossible 2, the better.
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Cruise has long built a reputation for being one of the most meticulous and dedicated actors and producers in Hollywood, but I had no idea that dedication extended to the gear that’s used on set. While promoting his upcoming film DIGGER, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, film journalist Kevin McCarthy (above) got to chat with the Top Gun actor about the film’s use of the Beaumont VistaVision, a classic film camera that uses Paramount Pictures’ VistaVision format that was developed in the 1950s as an alternative to 20th Century Fox’s widescreen CinemaScope format.
VistaVision’s genius was to load film horizontally, instead of vertically. This allowed for a larger surface area covering eight film perforations instead of the previous method’s four, resulting in better quality footage. VistaVision has been used in some huge classics, such as Vertigo and North by Northwest, but has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years via films such as The Brutalist and One Battle After Another.
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But what really got me during Tom Cruise’s interview, was why he is so passionate about the format’s use in DIGGER: “We want flaws. You want things that have an emotion. It just has a different kind of feeling to it,” he says. In another short from the same interview, posted by Kevin McCarthy (above), Tom talks about lens characteristics. “Everything used to be hand-cut glass, so we would do a lot of testing on lenses (...) you have to know the character of the lens”.
It’s especially refreshing to hear Tom’s dedication to the craft, following an interview with filmmaking legend, George Lucas, whose passive stance on AI I completely disagreed with. I really think that as AI worms its way further and further into filmmaking, a core contingent of creatives will push back by prioritising character and imperfection over clinical slop. It certainly sounds like Tom Cruise is on board.
Above: the official tailer for DIGGER
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